There is only one medal count that matters for the Australians, and it is this revised take on the 2024 Paris Olympics results that has most of the world baffled – and the United States infuriated.
Australia has surprised the world by moving into third place on the Olympic medal list, thanks to a record 18 Olympic gold medals – and counting.
Now Channel 9 has revealed that if the gold medals were weighted based on population, Australia would be the frontrunner.
Hosts Karl Stefanovic and Sarah Abo unveiled a new Olympic medal count based on population per capita. The fewer people behind each gold medal, the higher the ranking.
And thanks to our modest population of 26 million, Australia has a significant lead over the superpowers China and the United States.
“These are the three best countries on the normal medal table, but this is the medal table that counts,” said Abo.
“Yes, definitely,” Stefanovic confirmed.
“That’s right, right? So Australia, we have one gold medal per 1.44 million people as opposed to the US,” Abo replied.
“Who has one gold per 12.3 million people and China…” Stevanovic added.
“One gold for every 56 million people. Hey, what’s up,” Abo said.
Channel 9’s graph shows that Australia would top the list if the number of medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics were weighted by population size.
Australia is led by our swimmers including Lani Pallister, Brianna Throssell, Ariarne Titmus and Mollie O’Callaghan (pictured left to right)
Normally Australia would be eliminated in week two, but athletes like Nina Kennedy have avoided that by also winning gold medals in athletics.
Now other countries are starting to take notice. For example, Daniel Olaniran from the United Kingdom, known online as ‘OlanTekkers’, is the internet’s favourite failed footballer. He posted a video that he showed to an audience of almost 500,000 people.
“This is the current medal standings for the Olympics, Australians?” he mused.
‘Aussie, Aussie, Aussie,’ ranks fourth out of a population of 26 million.
‘Yes, we know that half of the medals are in swimming, that’s fine.
‘Just look at the population numbers of the countries that are currently doing better than Australia.
‘We have China, 1.4 billion people. What the f***? United States and France.
‘Australia now has only 26 million people and now you claim you are breeding these kinds of athletes.
“We need to see what’s in the water.”
Oliver Bleddyn, Sam Welsford, Conor Leahy and Kelland O’Brien broke a 20-year hoodoo and claimed more historic gold for Australia
Australian TikTok users were quick to point out that swimming is so popular in our country that it was a huge success at the pool in Paris.
‘For some strange reason in Australia it was normal for children aged 7-12 to swim 20-30 lengths of a 50 metre pool every day after school, just for fun,’ one person wrote.
“We have to teach swimming at primary school for six years, and we also organize a swimming carnival every year,” another recalls.
“We have a huge sports culture in general and we all learn to swim at a young age for self-preservation,” posted another.
Needless to say, TikTok users in the United States were not impressed.
The official US Olympic network NBC has been repeatedly criticized for using total medals as the main criterion for rankings, rather than the universal convention of considering only gold medals for rankings, and using less important medals to determine the outcome.
Keegan Palmer could have qualified for the United States, but chose the country where he learned to skate to win two gold medals in a row
Now American fans are accusing the Australians of manipulating the score to benefit themselves.
“The Australians were shouting that ‘the only thing that matters is how many gold medals you have’. Now all of a sudden there are caveats and (added value) to something that is not the most gold medals,” one person fumed.
“Wait, Australia doesn’t know math? Per capita, Australia should have 9x as many medals as the US. So by ‘per capita’ logic, Australia is still behind the US,” another American follower mused.
“Per capita Olympics are a matter of tackling,” posted another.
There was one thing everyone agreed on, however: what exactly is in the water in Australia.
‘What’s in the water? Sharks, crocodiles, blue-ringed octopuses, stingrays, jellyfish, etc. etc. etc.’